PIERCING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Piercing

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/pˈɪrsɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Pierce v. t. (past & past part. pierced; pres. part. piercing)

To thrust into, penetrate, or transfix, with a pointed instrument. "I pierce... her tender side."

To penetrate; to enter; to force a way into or through; to pass into or through; as, to pierce the enemy's line; a shot pierced the ship.

Fig.: To penetrate; to affect deeply; as, to pierce a mystery. "Pierced with grief." "Can no prayers pierce thee?"

Pierce v. i. To enter; to penetrate; to make a way into or through something, as a pointed instrument does; used literally and figuratively. "And pierced to the skin, but bit no more." "She would not pierce further into his meaning."

adjective

Piercing adj. Forcibly entering, or adapted to enter, at or by a point; perforating; penetrating; keen; used also figuratively; as, a piercing instrument, or thrust. "Piercing eloquence."

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Etymology of 'Piercing'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Piercing" Quotes from Famous Books

... thunder word! Piercing the soul like sharpest sword, Beginning without ending! Eternity! Time without Time, I know not in my grief and crime Whereto my soul is tending. The fainting heart recoils in fear To see ...

— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold

... of steel before his eyes, and a piercing scream broke from him as Gian Maria's dagger buried itself in his breast. Too late Guidobaldo put forward a ...

— Love-at-Arms • Raphael Sabatini

... Slowly but surely the speck came on; the wind shifted a point, which caused a gleam of sunlight to fall upon a sail. It was a boat! there could be no doubt of it—and making directly for the island! Unable to contain herself, Edith, uttering a piercing cry, sank upon the ground and burst into a passionate flood of tears. It was the irresistible impulse of hope long deferred at length realised; for the child did not entertain a doubt that this was at length ...

— Ungava • R.M. Ballantyne

... Seadrift's eye was like the glance of an eagle. It seemed to inquire, and to resent, in the same instant. Ludlow shrunk from the piercing look, and reddened to the brow,—whether with his recollections, or not, ...

— The Water-Witch or, The Skimmer of the Seas • James Fenimore Cooper

... order, with a fresh breeze and smooth water. The hammocks had been stowed, the decks washed, and the awnings spread. Shoals of albicore were darting across the bows of the different ships; and the seamen perched upon the cat-heads and spritsail-yard, had succeeded in piercing with their harpoons many, which were immediately cut up, and in the frying-pans for breakfast. But very soon they had "other fish to fry;" for one of the Indiamen, the Royal George, made the signal that there were four strange ...

— Newton Forster • Frederick Marryat

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